Author:He Chao-Chu

Size:Length:116 x Width:91 x Height2.1 (cm)

Introduction： He Chao-Chu was born in 1931 in Judong County, Hsinchu State, in a Hakka farming family. Since he was a child, he has had an interest in painting, and inspired by his teachers when he attended Judong High School, he chose the arts and painting as his career. In 1952, He graduated from the Art Teacher's Department of the Taipei Normal School and worked as an art teacher at middle schools. He worked diligently to create oil paintings in his spare time and was awarded the Tai-Yang Arts Award for three consecutive years, the Painting Golden Award, and the Sun Yat-Sen Medal of Arts and Culture.
He Chao-Chu's paintings are bright and colorful; his subjects are primarily live scenes and sketches. His past works portrayed many versions of Jiufen and Danshui in Northern Taiwan.
The artwork's theme this time is Guanyin Mountain. He chose to portray the scenery through an overlooking, distant view from his studio on the river. Overall, the painting's composition is stable with a touch of curiosity. The parallel lines between the pier and the riverbank at the foot of the hill are enhanced by the visual dynamic brought about by the close-up view of the houses, trees, and moored boats. During Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule, painters used to gaze at freshwater landscapes from a colonialist perspective. The Japanese painter Kinichiro Ishikawa influenced painters to adopt the "picturesque" concept in landscape portrayal; as a result, previous works visualized Danshui’s specific church spires and red tile and white wall houses to highlight the romantic and exotic mood. However, He's freshwater landscapes cast a different light on the scenery: one that belongs to the mundane, the daily, and the content.
He uses contrasting and complementary colors to form a color rhythm in the painting. The artist also fully grasps the difference in color saturation and hue to produce delicate changes in the painting's highlights and shadows. The viewer will be able to feel the rhythmic musical effect when viewing He Chao-Chu's works.

Accession Number:PT10800300